Essential Food Pricing Monitoring Report – August 2022

The FAO Food Price Index is a measure of monthly international price changes for a basket of food commodities. It is the average of price indices for cereals, vegetable oils, meat, dairy, and sugar weighted by the average export shares of each food group over 2014 – 2016. Statistics South Africa. 2022. Consumer inflation jumps to a 5-year high. Available online: https://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=15463#:~:tex t=Annual%20meat%20inflation%20has%20remained,the%20twelve%20months%20to%20May; Statistics South Africa. 2022. Statistical Release – Consumer Price Index June 2022. Available online: https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0141/P0141June2022.pdf Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the Commission began monitoring essential food prices to understand the effects of the pandemic and ensuing economic crisis on the food value chain and food markets. The Commission’s work to date on food prices pointed to concerning price behaviour and market dynamics in South African food markets which led to enforcement actions against price gouging and the initiation of the Fresh Produce Market Inquiry (Inquiry). The Inquiry will examine whether there are any features in the produce value chain which lesson, impedes, restricts or distorts the competitiveness of the South African fresh produce market. In this report, we briefly highlight some of the drivers of food inflation; expand on our previous analysis by focussing on the sunflower oil value chain extending to the price of cooking oil at the wholesale and retail levels. This analysis of the sunflower value chain is done for the period 2020 to date. The report also considers recent pricing trends for bread, maize meal, and margarine. To ensure consistency, we also present some analysis on key fruit and vegetables pricing to supplement the previous versions of our report. Global food inflation remains a concern Inflation and particularly food price inflation has emerged as a cause for concern among policymakers and consumers around the world.